though he have no wisdom to do himself good, yet he hath policy enough to do us mifchief. He lies in ambush behind our lawful comforts and employments; yet, for the generality of men, how fupine and careless are they, fufpecting no danger? Their fouls, like Laifh, dwell carelessly, their fenfes ungarded: O what an easy prize, and conqueft, doth the devil make of them! Indeed, if it were with us as with Adam in innocency, or as it was with Chrift in the days of his flesh (who by reafon of that overflowing fulness of grace that dwelt in him, the purity of his person, and the hypoftatical union, was fecured from the danger of all temptations) the cafe then were otherwife; but we have a traitor within, James i. 14, 15. as well as a tempter without: 1 Pet. v. 8. "Our "adversary the devil goes about as a roaring lion, feeking whom he may devour:" And, like the beafts of the forefts, poor fouls lie down before him, and become his prey. All the fagacity, wit, policy, and forefight of fome men, is fummoned in to ferve their bodies, and fecure their fleshly enjoyments. 66 REFLECTION. Lord! how doth the care, wifdom, and vigilance of men in temporal and external things, condemn my careleffnefs in the deep and dear concernments of my precious foul! what care and labour is there to fecure a perishing life, liberty, or treasure! when was I thus folicitous for my foul, though its value be ineftimable, and its danger far greater? Self-prefervation is one of the deepest principles in nature. There is not the poorest worm, or fly, but will fhun danger, if it can: yet I am so far from fhunning thofe dangers to which my foul lies continually exposed, that I often run it upon temptations, and voluntarily expose it to its enemies. I fee, Lord how watchful, jealous, and labourious thy people are; what prayers, tears, and groans, fearching of heart, mortification of lufts, guarding of fenfes; and all accounted too little by them Have not I a foul to fave or lofe eternally, as well as they? Yet I cannot deny one fleshly luft, nor withstand one temptation. O how I am convinced and condemned, not only by other's care and vigilance, but my own too, in leffer and lower matters ? I THE POEM. AM the fhip, whofe bills of lading come My foul fhould watch, look out, and use its glass, IT Temptations give it chace, 'its grappled fure, Till thou arrive in heav'n, watch, and fear; CHAP. VI. How fall a matter turns a ship about OBSERVATION.. T is just matter of admiration, to fee so great a body as a ship is, and when under fail too, before a fresh and strong wind, by which it is carried, as the clouds, with marvellous force and speed, yet to be commanded with eafe, by fo fmall a thing as the helm is. The fcripture takes notice of it as a matter worthy of our confideration. Jam. iii. 4. "Behold alfo the fhips, which though they be « great, and driven of fierce winds; yet they are turned about with "a fmall helm, whitherfoever the governor lifteth." Yea, * Ariftotle himself, that eagle-eyed philofopher, could not give a reason of it, but looked upon it as a very marvellous and wonderful thing. APPLICATION. To the fame ufe and office has God defigned confcience in man, which being rectified and regulated by the word and Spirit of God, is to fteer and order his whole converfation. Confcience is as the oracle of God, the judge and determiner of our actions, whether they be good or evil? And it lays the ftrongeft obligation upon the creature to obey its dictates, that is imaginable; for it binds under the reason and confideration of the moft abfolute and fovereign will of the great God. So that as often as confcience from the word convinceth us of any fin or duty, it lays fuch a bond upon us to obey it, as no power under heaven can relax or difpenfe with. Angels cannot do it, much less man; for that would be to exalt themselves above God. Now therefore it is an high and dreadful way of finning, to oppofe and rebel against confcience, when it convinces of fin and duty. Confcience fometimes reafons it out with men, and fhews them the Ariftot. Secund. Mŋxavxwv, c. 5. neceffity of changing their way and courfe; arguing it from the clearest and most allowed maxims of right reafon, as well as from the indifputable fovereignty of God. As for inftance: it convinceth their very reafon that things of eternal duration are infinitely to be preferred to all momentary and perishing things, Rom. viii. 18. Heb. xi. 26. and it is our duty to chufe them, and make all fecular and temporary concernments to ftand afide, and give place to them. Yet though men be convinced of this, their ftubborn will stands out, and will not yield up itself to the conviction. Further, It argues from this acknowledged truth, that all the delight and pleasures in this world are but a miserable portion, and that it is the higheft folly to adventure an immortal foul for them, Luke ix. 15. Alas! what remembrance is there of them in hell? They are as the waters that pafs away. What have they left, of all their mirth and jollity, but a tormenting fting? It convinceth them clearly, alfo, that in matters of deep concernment it is an high point of wifdom, to apprehend and improve the right feafons and opportunities of them, Prov. x. 5. "He that gathers in fummer is a wife fon." Ecclef. vii. 5. "A wife man's heart difcerns both time and judgment. "There is a feafon to every purpofe," Ecclef. iii. 1. viz. a nick of time, an happy juncture, when if a man ftrikes in, he doth his work effectually, and with much facility: fuch feafons confcience convinceth the foul of, and often whispers thus in its ear: Now, foul, ftrike in, clofe with this motion of the Spirit, and be happy for ever; thou mayeft never have fuch a gale for heaven any more. Now, though these be allowed maxims of reafon, and confcience enforce them strongly on the foul, yet cannot it prevail; the proud, ftubborn will rebels, and will not be guided by it. See Eph. ii. 3. Job xxxiv. 37. Ifa. xlvi. 12. Ezek. ii. 4. Jer. xliv. 16. REFLECTION. Ah! Lord, fuch an heart have I had before thee; thus obftinate, thus rebellious, fo uncontroulable by confcience. Many a time hath confcience thus whifpered in mine ear, many a time hath it ftood in my way, as the angel did in Balaan's, or the cherubims that kept the way of the tree of life with flaming fwords turning every way. Thus hath it ftood to oppofe me in the way of my lufts. How often hath it calmly debated the cafe with me alone? and how fweetly hath it expoftulated with me? How clearly hath it convinced of fin, danger, duty, with ftrong demonftration? How terrible hath it menaced my foul, and fet the point of the threatening at my very breaft? And yet my head-ftrong affections will not be remanded by it. I have obeyed the voice of every luft and temptation, Tit. iii. 3. but confcience hath loft its authority with me. Ah Lord! Lord! what a fad condition am I in, both in refpect of fin and mifery? My fin receives dreadful aggravations, for rebellion and prefumption are hereby added to it. I have violated the strongest bonds that ever were laid upon a creature. If my confcience had not thus convinced and warned, the fin had not been fo great and crimson-coloured, Jam. iv. 17. Ah! this is to fin with an high hand, Numb. xv. 30. to come near to the great and unpardonable tranfgreffion, Pfalm xix. 13. O how dreadful a way of finning is this, with opened eyes! and as my fin is thus out of meafure finful, fo my punishment will be out of measure dreadful, if I perfift in this rebellion. Lord! thou haft faid, Such shall be beaten with many stripes, Luke xii. 48. yea, Lord, and if ever my confcience, which by rebellion is now grown filent, fhould be in judgment awakened in this life; O! what an hell fhould I have within me! how would it thunder and roar upon me, and furround me with terrors? Thy word affures me, that no length of time can wear out of its memory what I have done, Gen. xlii. 21. no violence or force can fupprefs it, Mat. xxvii. 4. no greatnefs of power can ftifle it; it will take the mightieft monarch by the throat, Exod. x. 16. Dan. v. 6. no mufic, pleasures, or delights, can charm it, Job xx. 22. O conscience! thou art the fweetest friend, or the dreadfuleft enemy in the world; thy confolations are incomparably fweet, and thy terrors infupportable. Ah! let me ftand it out no longer against conscience; the very ship in which I fail is a confutation of my madness, that rushes greedily into fin against both reafon and confcience, and will not be commanded by it; furely, O my foul, this will be bitterness in the end. A THE POEM. SHIP of greatest burthen will obey The rudder; he that fits at helm, may fway WE CHAP. VII. Thro' many fears and dangers feamen run, OBSERVATION. E have an elegant and lively defcription of their fears and dangers, Pfal. cvii. 25, 26, 27. "He commandeth and "raifeth the ftormy winds, which lift up the waves thereof: "they mount up to heaven, they go down again to the depths; their "foul is melted because of trouble; they reel to and fro, they ftag"ger like a drunken man; they are at their wits end." Or, as it is in the Hebrew, "All wifdom is fwallowed up." Suitable to which is that of the poet*. "The pilot knows not what to chufe, or flee; O what a strange and miraculous deliverance have many feamen had? How often have they yielded themselves for dead men, and verily thought the next fea would have fwallowed them up? How earneftly then do they cry for mercy? and, like the Cymbrians, can pray in a storm, though they regard it not at other times, Pfal. cvii. 28. Jonah i. 5, 6. APPLICATION. Thefe dreadful ftorms do at once difcover to us the mighty power of God in raifing them, and the abundant goodness of God in preferving poor creatures in them. 1. The power of God is graciously manifefted in raifing them; the wind is one of the Lord's wonders, Pfal. cvii. 24, 25. They "that go down to the fea, fee the works of the Lord, and his [won"ders] in the deep; for he commandeth and raiseth the ftormy "winds." Yea, ver. 18. God appropriates it as a peculiar work of his; "He caufeth his [wind to blow]." Hence he is faid in fcripture "to bring them forth out of his treasury," Pfal. cxxxvii. 7. there they are locked up, and reserved; not a gust can break forth till he command and call for it to go and execute his pleafure: Yea, he is faid to "hold them in his fift," Prov. xxx. 4. What is more incapable of holding than the wind? yet God holds it; although it be a strong and terrible creature, he controls and rules it: yea, the fcripture fets forth God, as riding upon the wings of the wind," Pfal. xviii. 10. It is a borrowed fpeech from the manner of men, who when they would fhew their pomp and, greatnefs, ride upon some stately Rector in incerto eft: nec quid fugiatve petatve |